1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to coding used in the transmission and processing of video signals and devices that use such coding.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication systems provide several options for obtaining access to broadcast video content. Consumers can receive broadcast standard definition and high definition television broadcasts from the air with an antenna. Analog and digital cable television networks distribute a variety of television stations in most communities on a subscription basis. In addition, satellite television and new internet protocol (IP) television services provide other subscription alternatives for consumers. Analog video signals can be coded in accordance with a number of video standards including NTSC, PAL and SECAM. Digital video signals can be encoded in accordance with standards such as Quicktime, (motion picture expert group) MPEG-2, MPEG-4, or H.264. In addition to digital coding, some video signals are scrambled to provide access to these signals, only to the subscribers that have paid to access the particular content.
The desire for video content has driven cellular telephone networks to begin offering video programs to their subscribers as streaming video. In this fashion, users of mobile devices can have access to video programming on the go. In digital broadcast video systems, video signals are encoded with random access points. When a user changes channels, the decoding of the new channel can only begin after the next random access point occurs. Increasing the frequency of the random access points increases the encoding overhead of a video stream.
The limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention.